The president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Pere Aragonès, has shown himself convinced that he will be able to successfully pass a government budget for 2023, because "it will have the political support of Parliament to become a reality". He said this in a video published on Twitter this Thursday, in which he reviewed the government's actions during 2022 and some of the challenges that the Catalan executive faces in 2023. Aragonès defended that the Generalitat budget for 2023 "must mean a new step forward" and, in his opinion, the measures included have "very broad social support", although at the moment his Catalan Republic Left (ERC) minority government only has the parliamentary support of En Comú Podem (Comuns), arithmetically insufficient.
Deixem enrere un 2022 en què els catalans i catalanes hem hagut de sobreposar-nos a les dificultats del context global.
— Pere Aragonès i Garcia 🎗 (@perearagones) December 29, 2022
El Govern hi hem fet front impulsant mesures d'urgència i, alhora, transformadores com la gratuïtat de l'I2 a les escoles bressol o l'ampliació de la T-jove. pic.twitter.com/y747cKaLvP
Translation of Tweet:
"We are leaving behind a 2022 in which Catalans have had to overcome the difficulties of the global context. The Catalan government has confronted this by promoting urgent and, at the same time, transformative measures such as the free I2 [pre-school education for two-year olds] or the extension of the T-jove [youth transport pass]." - Pere Aragonès i Garcia
Aragonès made the statements after hearing the conditions set by the opposition Catalan Socialists (PSC) for their support to the budget, which include the expansion of Barcelona-El Prat airport, the construction of the Ronda Nord beltway, and support for the Hard Rock leisure project in the Tarragona region. Other points demanded by the PSC relate to the economy's productive and industrial models; knowledge and the deployment of renewable energies, points on which its views are more distant from ERC. The Socialists have also demanded "transparency measures" such as, for Parliament to validate the government's subsidies and aid to private media, for the CEO public research agency to depend on Parliament and for the number of organizations belonging of the Generalitat to be reduced. President Aragonès made no reference to these requests.
Housing rental prices
In the video, Aragonès ran through some of the measures that his government has promoted this year, such as free pre-school education for two-year olds, the 29 million euros allocated for rent subsidies for young people, and the extension of the T-Jove youth transport pass up to 30 years of age. He has reiterated the work done in defence of the Catalan language, with the plan for 100 transversal actions to promote Catalan; the measures taken to protect the Catalan school model; and the commitment to the audiovisual sector in Catalan, "in defence and promotion of the country's own language".
The referendum
As well, he pointed out that the government will continue to work for an independence referendum in Catalonia, "as a tool to resolve the political conflict with the Spanish state, putting democracy at the centre". He stressed the will to improve the Catalan economy with a national pact for industry, attracting investments at industrial and high-tech levels, and promoting green transformation and the change in the energy model. And he highlighted "pioneering feminist measures", such as perinatal bereavement leave or menstrual pain leave.